Jack and I liked this romantic comedy, a cat and mouse game about some con-artists, wherein it's never quite clear who is scamming whom. Will Smith (last blogged in Men in Black 3) is charming as the world-weary older (when did THAT happen?) crook and Margot Robbie (most recently in The Wolf of Wall Street) is believable as the sexy newbie. The ensemble includes character actor Adrian Martinez (you'd recognize his face from cameos in It's Kind of a Funny Story, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Casa di Mi Padre, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, American Hustle, and the TV show Inside Amy Schumer) as trash-talking Farhad, BD Wong (he is the only actor to have won a Tony and four other awards for the same performance–for his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly) as a hilarious gambler, and Rodrigo Santoro (one of the love interests in I Love You Phillip Morris) as a handsome gangster.
Directed and written by the team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (made Crazy, Stupid, Love. after Phillip Morris above), there are plenty of laughs, some suspense, and a number of twists.
Plenty of songs (listed here and some of them, including my personal favorite White Bird by It's a Beautiful Day can be streamed here) are added to the original music by Nick Urata (last blogged for What Maisie Knew). The love theme is available on youtube.
Jack thinks the mention of being a waitress at Sizzler is a reference to a gag of Smith's on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, a song and dance to "We're going to Sizzler," but neither of us could find a link.
The reviews are tepid (55% from critics and 60 from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes) but in its third weekend of release, it came in fourth at the box office. We had fun and you might, too.
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